BMS Connected Learning Newsletter

Barrington Middle School
BMS Connected learning Newsletter 4.9.2018
The BMS Learning Community is Respectful, Responsible, and Ready to Succeed!

Upcoming Events:
(Note: Please review the dates as dates are subjected to change due to a number of factors from one newsletter to the next).

• Monday, April 16 through Friday, April 20:  No School/Spring Recess
• Wednesday, April 25, 2018: 7th Grade College Visit (Orange Cluster)

• Wednesday, April 25:  5th Grade Parent Orientation at 6:30 pm in the school’s auditorium
• Friday, April 27, 2018:  No School/Professional Development Day for BMS Teachers (Parent/Teacher Conferences for HMS and the lower elementaries).
• Friday, May 4, 2018: Sport’s Night from 7:00pm - 9:00pm in the school’s gymnasium.
• Wednesday, May 16, 2018: Anxiety Presentation from 7:00pm - 9:00pm at the BHS Auditorium.
• Thursday, May 24, 2018: One Amazing Night from 6:00pm - 8:00pm in the front of BMS.

Looking Ahead:

• Thursday, June 14, 2018: 8th Grade Celebration. 8th Grade Bridge Ceremony from 6:00pm - 7:00pm in the Barrington High School Gymnasium (each student will receive two tickets), and 8th Grade Dinner Dance (BMS students only) rom 7:00pm - 9:30pm in the Barrington High School Cafeterias. Please stay tuned for more information.

Note from Dr. Anderson
Last week, BMS hosted a visit for nearly 30 educators from across the country to come and learn about our school’s Deeper Learning and Project Based Learning journey. The visiting educators were so impressed with our students level of engagement, quality of instruction, and real world and authentic learning opportunities. In addition, two of our faculty members, Mrs. Henderson and Mrs. Polando had an opportunity to present at a the national Blended and Personalized Learning Conference at the Convention Center. At that conference, BMS also received a great deal of positive feedback for the level of education we are providing our students. Through these most recent events, I had an opportunity to stop and reflect how amazing our learning community is. Mrs. Bulk and I are incredibly grateful to work with amazing parents, students, and educators!

BMS Spotlight on Learning
This week we would like to thank Ms. McCauley for her leadership in the planning for this year’s 8th Grade Career Day! On Thursday, March 29, 2018 we had nearly 30 workshop presenters, 15 parent volunteers, five high school students, two high school educators, two keynote speakers, and a student band meet with and perform for our 8th grade students. The goal of the day is to inspire students and teach students to discover and follow their passion! Great work Ms. McCauley and Mrs. Bulman for making this day such a special event for our 8th graders!


BMS News you can Use

BMS Building Update:
The new building construction is well underway. To help with communication, each week I have been releasing the BMS Building Project Blog. You can access the blog by visiting the BMS Building Project Homepage or the direct link to the BMS Building Project Blog. In addition, each Tuesday morning we will have a student volunteer give updates to our student body during morning announcements.

Barrington Police Department Anonymous Tip Line:
The Barrington Police Department has set up an anonymous tip line at 401-437-3933. Chief Lacrosse welcomes students, parents, and community members to use the line if they would like to remain anonymous and have something to report.

Barrington Middle School Trained in ALICE:
This Wednesday afternoon, BMS faculty and staff will be trained/re-trained in the ALICE (Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate) universal active shooter protocol that all faculty and staff within our district have been or will be trained. BMS Administration and Faculty will be reviewing components of ALICE in the near future.

Unified Basketball Assembly Highlight Video:
A few weeks back, BMS hosted a Unified Basketball assembly between the Barrington Middle School Eagles and the Martin Middle School Wildcats. The event was a celebration of sportsmanship, teamwork, inclusion, and all abilities. Please see a link to a video that was put together by Mr. Dionne that captures the spirit of the event quite well. https://youtu.be/y3Lb9ktuU0Y

RICAS (Rhode Island Comprehensive Assessment System)
This year, we introduced the new RICAS assessments (or Rhode Island Comprehensive Assessment System modeled after the Massachusetts Comprehensive State Assessment) in mathematics and English Language Arts (ELA)/literacy. All students in grades 6 through 8 will participate. Students will take RICAS assessments using a laptop and will complete two sessions for both Math and ELA. The RICAS ELA assessment began April 3rd.  The Math RICAS assessment will begin May 7th.

​Released items and practice tests are available.
​RICAS Student Tutorial and Practice Tests can be accessed here: ricas.pearsonsupport.com
RICAS Released  Items can be accessed here: ricas.pearsonsupport.com/released-items

New Science Assessment
Our state science assessments, will also change this year. Students in grade 8 will continue to take the new assessment (Next Generations Science Assessment or NGSA) aligned to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Students will take 2 sessions of this assessment using a laptop.  This assessment will be administered as a field test and will begin May 21st.

Test Items can be found at AIR Science Practice Test Items for  Middle School https://airscience.tds.airast.org/student.

BMS Assessment Schedule:
Note: Barrington Middle School  will be administering the following tests and the testing period for all tests is from 8:15 am to 11:00 am.

Teachable Moment

BMS’s Mission and Common Commitments:
In our weekly communication to our faulty/staff, the start of every faculty/committee meeting, the start of our parent orientations, and the start of every student town hall meeting, Mrs. Bulk and I begin with reviewing our school’s mission and common commitments. We use this mission and these commitments to drive everything we do at Barrington Middle School. Beginning with these few items helps remind us why we are doing what we are doing, and what the collective commitments we have made to each and everyone of our students. You may have read/heard these statements in the past, but today, I ask that you review these items and think about each one, and how each statement is supporting your child. As always, please email/contact me if you would like to discuss further.   

BMS Mission:
The Barrington Middle School  empowers all students to excel!

BMS Common Commitments:
In order to empower all students to excel, the BMS Learning Community will provide:
•A safe, caring, and supportive learning environment
•A challenging curriculum supported by current technology
•The best research based strategies to meet the unique educational, physical, emotional, and social needs of the 10-14 year old learner
•A deliberate and specific approach to meet the individual needs/abilities for each performance subgroup of our student body